Vice Adm. Scott Stearney, who oversaw U.S. Navy forces in the Middle East, was found dead Saturday in his residence in Bahrain, officials said. Defense officials told CBS News they are calling it an "apparent suicide."

Stearney was the commander of the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. Rear Adm. Paul Schlise, the deputy commander of Fifth Fleet, has assumed command, the Navy said in a statement.

"Scott Stearney was a decorated Naval warrior. He was a devoted husband and father, and he was a good friend to all," the statement said.

Jonathan Cook says the Guardian’s attacks on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange are intended to shore up a consensus on the left for attacks on leading threats to the existing, neoliberal order, whether they are a whistle-blowing platform like WikiLeaks or a politician like Jeremy Corbyn. >>

As US stocks seesaw with every conflicting trade-war related headline, investors are fixating on tomorrow night's dinner meeting between President Trump and President Xi with laser-like focus. But the Trump-Xi summit isn't the only meeting that could have broad repercussions for global markets, and though it has received much less attention in the press, the planned meetings between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (along with the Russian and Saudi energy ministers) could dictate the course of global oil prices for the foreseeable future.

Looming over the Saudi-Russia talks are suspicions that Saudi Arabia has been accelerating production of oil beyond the cuts adopted by OPEC+ in November 2016 to placate President Trump - a conspiracy "theory" first highlighted by Zero Hedge weeks ago, which has finally won acknowledgment in the pages of the Wall Street Journal and other mainstream press.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Remember what I mentioned in my article today, about the meeting of Saudi Prince Bin Salman, and the Russian President Putin?!?

I have a very strong feeling, that I might well have been right!!

And again, there will be utterly nothing President Trump can do to unseal, or scotch the deal, where payment on the oil will most likely be in another denomination than that of the US dollar.

A few days ago the US department of treasury came out with new sanctions against two Iranians who allegedly were involved in hacking of websites. The treasury department accuses these individuals of using ransomware to hold sites hostage and then demanding Bitcoin as payment to release their hold on the sites...

The British government’s UN resolution calling for a Yemen ceasefire has been blocked by heavy lobbying from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, chief participants in the war. The resolution would’ve called for a halt to fighting in the vital aid port of Hodeidah.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was very public in his opposition to the ceasefire, with British officials saying he “threw a fit” about their proposal. The prince complained that it weakened the Saudi position on the war.

Salman’s level of influence is perhaps not what it was after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, though apparently it was still enough to convince several nations, including the US, to block the ceasefire resolution and demanding it be held off for at least a month.

Webmaster's Commentary:

One has to wonder; just what does the House of Saud believe it can win in another 30 days in Yemen, when in 3 years, his soldiers have been totally unable to "pacify" the Rebel Houthis?!?

And when one is an international leader, like Saudi Arabia' s Butcher of Yemen, in a country where the governed have no say over its leadership, we are looking at just what that extra 30 days may buy him and his allies: the short answer is, more killing; more starvation; and more disease on the part of the Yemeni people.

Although the United States government routinely denies that it in any way cooperates with ISIS, reports continue to manifest themselves demonstrating exactly the opposite, particularly in Syria. Over the course of the war and ever since the emergence of the terrorist organization on the world scene, there have been a number of “mysterious helicopters” that extract ISIS fighters from battlefields in which they are facing imminent defeat either by the legitimate government of the countries in which they are fighting, pro-government militias, or even ahead of “anti-ISIS” strikes by the alleged “anti-ISIS coalition.”

While not attempting to go in to a detailed explanation or analysis of each incident, below are a number of reports of such “airlifts of evil” that have surfaced over the last two years. The Pentagon, as mentioned above, has repeatedly denied these reports.

Prior to the Oct. 2 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of a Saudi assassination squad — which the CIA believes was on direct orders of crown prince MbS himself — a tiny segment of the American public had likely ever heard of deep Pentagon role in executing the Saudi war on Yemen, which has raged since 2015.

But after Khashoggi's brutal slaying, the mainstream media suddenly "discovered" what the U.N. has called the "world's worst humanitarian crisis". The handful of Senators who've long fought to end the U.S. role in the war, however, might now be thinking better late than never as on Wednesday in a hugely important 63-37 victory, the Senate agreed to finally move forward with a full floor debate over the legality of America's involvement in the conflict.

Amazing news: The Senate just voted 63-37 in support of a bill to end the US-Saudi war on Yemen.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Mike and I have not only heard about it, but blogged about it, when President Obama jumped feet-first to a commitment to impress his Saudi hosts, but actually had no bearing on the safety and security of Americans.

I hope, that with a full debate on this issue, the White House will understand that it actually doesn't have the authority to make a commitment like this, and it should never have been made in the first place, without Congress's full and engaged consent to this mission, or others, like Syria and Ukraine.

For his visit to Moscow on 8 November, ambassador James Jeffrey was tasked with explaining the current US obsession with the expansion of Persian influence in the Arab world (Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen). Washington now wishes to formulate this question in geo-strategic rather than religious terms (Chiites/Sunni), while Teheran is organising its national defence around forward posts composed of Chiite Arabs.

Moscow then considered the possibility of negotiating on Teheran’s behalf for the easing of unilateral US sanctions, in exchange for its military withdrawal from Syria. President Vladimir Putin confirmed his proposition, not only for his US opposite number, but also for the Israëli Prime Minister, during their meeting in Paris on 11 November for the celebrations marking the centenary of the end of the First World War .

Although the United States government routinely denies that it in any way cooperates with ISIS, reports continue to manifest themselves demonstrating exactly the opposite, particularly in Syria. Over the course of the war and ever since the emergence of the terrorist organization on the world scene, there have been a number of “mysterious helicopters” that extract ISIS fighters from battlefields in which they are facing imminent defeat either by the legitimate government of the countries in which they are fighting, pro-government militias, or even ahead of “anti-ISIS” strikes by the alleged “anti-ISIS coalition.”

While not attempting to go in to a detailed explanation or analysis of each incident, below are a number of reports of such “airlifts of evil” that have surfaced over the last two years. The Pentagon, as mentioned above, has repeatedly denied these reports...

Is it possible that highly trained special forces and navy seals discovered the origins of ISIS while in the field?

His name:
Chief Eddie Gallagher

The Criminals in the Corrupt Crime Syndicate de facto corporation, “United States,” for profit slaver corporation and the Criminals in the Military Industrial Complex Crime Syndicate have chosen Chief Gallagher to take the fall and spend the rest of his life behind bars in prison if found guilty for a bogus crime of murdering someone that he was performing surgery upon, to save, an isis terrorist, who Chief Eddie Gallagher (Leader of his Navy Seal Unit) took charge of, to rescue, bring back to the Navy Seal base, and then proceeded to work on, to save this ISIS terrorist’s life.

The numbers are mind-blowing: Since the beginning of the conflict in Yemen, an estimated 85,000 children under five may have died from extreme hunger and disease, according to the last analysis by Save the Children, the international health and human rights organization. Although children are the most affected by the conflict, 14 million people are at risk of famine, according to data compiled by the United Nations.

For almost four years, Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, has been ravaged by a bloody conflict between Houthi rebels and supporters of Yemen’s internationally recognized government. In 2015, Saudi Arabia formed a coalition of Arab states to fight the Houthis, which included Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, and Senegal. These countries have either sent troops to fight on the ground in Yemen or have carried out air attacks.

An estimated 85,000 children under the age of five have starved to death over the last three years as a result of Yemen’s civil war, a report from Save the Children has found, as the charity urged an immediate ceasefire to prevent more loss of life.

The figure is a conservative estimate based on UN data on severe acute malnutrition, which the international body says has afflicted more than 1.3 million children since the conflict between Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition that seeks to restore Yemen’s exiled government began in 2015.

About 14 million people – half of Yemen’s population – are currently at risk of famine, largely because of Saudi border blockades designed to weaken the Houthis, which have also strangled civilian access to food, fuel, aid and commercial goods.

As 2018 draws to a close, it is unclear if U.S. troops and their Arab-Kurdish allies have made a dent in ISIS’ last stronghold in Syria.

A spokesman for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Syria estimated in December 2017 that fewer than 3,000 ISIS fighters remained in both countries. Since then, defense officials have said consistently that roughly 2,000 ISIS fighters are trapped in Syria’s Middle Euphrates River Valley.

Army Col. Sean Ryan, a spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, repeated the 2,000 figure when briefing reporters on Tuesday. However, it is difficult to determine exactly how many ISIS fighters remain in their last enclave in Syria because they are dug in deeply and the terrain is difficult for combat operations, he said.

“The numbers game is difficult to count because ISIS is underground – they’re in tunnels; they’re hiding,” Ryan said. “So it’s not like we watch them walk into to a building and we’re counting as they go in. They’re spread apart.”

Webmaster's Commentary:

This response, is Orwellian double-speak, writ large.

IF the US military knows where these tunnels are, why do they not then blow them up?!?

Perhaps because they want to "save and groom" these US-funded and equipped forces to fight another day?!?

The United States must operate in a world filled with ugly, brutal, and authoritarian regimes; but that doesn't mean it needs to cower to their whims.

resident Donald Trump doesn’t understand his chief responsibility as president. It is not to make deals and create jobs. It is to protect the security and liberty of Americans. By that standard, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not a “truly spectacular ally,” as he claimed.

The Trump administration bows before the Saudis once more over the war on Yemen:

The US has “slammed the brakes on” a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a limited ceasefire and increased humanitarian aid in Yemen over concerns about angering Saudi Arabia, two sources tell CNN.

One source familiar with the negotiations over the resolution tells CNN the US “has slammed the brakes on,” saying that “we can’t support a resolution at the moment.”

Webmaster's Commentary:

This absolutely disgusts me, as it should every thinking American.
And I can tell you, very clearly, why US negotiators "cannot support a resolution at this time."

But in coming up with an answer, I have to ask myself, and our readers, just what has happened to the soul, and spirit, of this country, that the Unhinged, Surveilled State of America, since President Obama was in office, choosing to abet and enable Saudi war crimes in Yemen?!?

And at what moral price do we allow this to continue?!?

It is because, once again, the Butcher of Yemen, Crown Prince Bin Salman, and his American Merchant of Death in Chief, President Trump, are hunkering down, and scurrying away from any meaningful dialogue which could end this genocide.

From the Butcher'standpoint, obviously, not enough Yemeni babies, women, children, and the medically fragile murdered, or maimed for life yet. THIS is what this genocide looks like from

And for our Merchant of Death in Chief, not nearly enough American weapons have bee sold yet, and he would probably love to see this conflict go on for years, adding to the bottom line of the US's military industrial complex.

But I seriously doubt that this will put a crimp in both President Trump's or the Butcher of Yemen's war-time vision to leave a plague of death,disease, and destruction, and declare "victory" (whatever that means).

Five prominent international charities, including The International Rescue Committee, Oxfam America, CARE US, Save the Children, and the Norwegian Refugee Council, urged the US government to stop its military support for Saudi Arabia and the coalition it leads in their devastating war on Yemen.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said that the "deal of the century" is an American plot to make Israel a dominant force in the Middle East, reassuring that Iran and other Islamic countries will stand against the plot and thwart it. Larijani made the remarks on Monday in Tehran, addressing the closing ceremony of the Islamic Unity Conference. “The so-called ‘deal of the century’ is an Israeli-American plot,” Larijani said, reassuring that Iran is determined to foil it. “We will stand against the Israeli regime and won’t let the deal take place in this region,” he went on to say. “They have called it the ‘deal of the century’ to achieve a number of major goals. Their first goal is to increase the power of Israel in the region. … The other goal is to end the story of Palestine by telling Palestinian refugees to stay in other countries and not to return to their homeland,” Larijani said.

Head of Iran's Strategic Foreign Relations Council Seyed Kamal Kharrazi blasted the Tel Aviv regime for creating rift among the Muslim states, and said that Israel is the main cause for insecurity in the Middle East. "The Zionist regime is the main reason behind division among the Muslims, specially regional states," Kharrazi said on Monday. He, meantime, underlined that the issue of Palestine today is of special significance and Muslim states should pay special attention to it. Kharrazi underlined Iran’s interest in promoting unity among the Muslims, and said, "Israel is main sponsor of terrorism in the region." In relevant remarks in late October, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi strongly blasted the Israeli regime for striving to create rifts among Muslim countries in a bid to cover up its 70-year-long occupation of Palestine and massacre of the Palestinian people.

Yesterday night a strong earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale hit near the Iran-Iraq border. A number of buildings were damaged and about 640 people were injured. The injured number is likely to go up over the next few days.....

Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have hit a military base in Saudi Arabia’s Asir region with a domestically-manufactured high-precision ballistic missile in retaliation for the regime's campaign of military aggression against the impoverished nation, a report says.

Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network, citing an unnamed military official from the missile unit of the Yemeni army, reported that the military base, located in al-Alab border crossing, had been hit with the short-range and solid-propellant Badr P-1 missile on Sunday.

It added that the projectile had struck the designated target with precision, leaving an unspecified number of soldiers either killed or wounded. The explosion also inflicted damage to the hardware and equipment of the base.

A prominent Saudi royal said Saturday that whether or not heads of state gathered in Argentina next week for the Group of 20 summit warmly engage with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he is someone "that they have to deal with."

Prince Turki al-Faisal told The Associated Press the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul last month is "an unacceptable incident that tars and mars the long record of Saudi Arabia's own standing in the world."

"We will have to bear that. It's not something that should not be faced. And we do face it," he said.

Intelligence officials and analysts say the operation to kill Khashoggi, who wrote critically of the crown prince for The Washington Post, could not have happened without Prince Mohammed's knowledge. The kingdom, which has offered several conflicting accounts of the killing, denies the crown prince had any involvement.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I look at this with extreme skepticism, because even without "L'affaire Khoshoggi", the man has ordered the deaths of thousands of innocent Yemeni people, in order to control Yemen's oil, which amounts to 90% of Yemen's economy The Economy of Yemen

As a Saudi family royal, Crown Prince Bin Salman enjoys many honorifics, honorable titles to his name; but the one by which he will be most probably remembered, is that of "The Butcher of Yemen", aided and abetted in his war crimes by Amerika's Merchant of Death in Chief, President Donald Trump.

The media in Tel Aviv have reported that the UAE has invested as much as $100 million in an ambitious Israeli project to pipe natural gas to Europe.

The investment would be made by a company based in Abu Dhabi for a pipeline project which is internationally known to be unique given its record length as well as the extreme depths it would be laid toward Europe, Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen quoted Israeli media as reporting.

The agreement has been described as “historic” by Israeli media, al-Mayadeen added.

Israel has signed a multilateral deal over the scheme – called the East Med Pipeline Project - with Greece, Italy and Cyprus. The European Union also supports the project.

A German consultancy firm with access to senior officials in the country has been employed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to improve the kingdom’s image. For years, the Saudi leadership has spent large sums on lobbyists in the West and this weekend a German newspaper revealed that that the Crown Prince, known as MBS, is working with a Berlin based consulting firm to shape Germany’s impression of the 33-year-old.

Details of the agreement between MBS and the PR firm were discovered by German sources and reported in the Arab media. German Sunday newspaper, Welt am Sonntag reported that Saudi Crown Prince “has been working with WMP since 2015 to prevent the spread of negative views in Germany about the royal family.”

Webmaster's Commentary:

Hey, Butcher of Yemen, aka Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, ;I can help you out here, and not charge you a dime!

HOW ABOUT STOPPING THE SLAUGHTER OF THE YEMENI PEOPLE, AND STOP ASSASSINATING YOUR OWN CITIZENS, WHEN YOU DO NOT LIKE WHAT THEY HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT WHAT DIRECTION YOU HAVE TAKEN IN THIS HORRIFIC WAR?!?!?

For crying out loud, even the barbaric thugs of ISIS milked every possible drop of petroleum from the tiny, wheezing oilfields scattered around their backwater domain before they were finally driven out. So there is no economic case whatsoever for Imperial Washington’s massive military presence in the middle east.

The truth is, there is no such thing as an OPEC cartel – virtually every member produces all they can and cheats whenever possible. The only thing that resembles production control in the global oil market is the fact that the Saudi princes treat their oil reserves not much differently than Exxon.

That is, they attempt to maximize the present value of their 270 billion barrels of reserves. Yet ultimately they are no more clairvoyant at calibrating the best oil price to accomplish that objective at any given time than are the economists employed by Exxon, the DOE or the International Energy Agency.

The House of Saud's ties to the Khashoggi slaying are being milked by the Turkish President for maximum benefit amid debate on leadership of the Islamic world and how the crisis may affect US and Saudi strategy in the Middle East...

The Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry are very much aware that the high-stakes game goes way beyond ‘Pulp Fiction’ in Istanbul and the Astana peace process on Syria – carefully micro-managed by both Putin and Erdogan alongside Iran’s Rouhani. The big prize is no less than the leadership of the Islamic world.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Putin, as usual, is no less than one thousand chess moves ahead of President Trump, in understanding how all this is going to be perceived globally, and how it can best benefit Russia and its allies.

Some of us when we think of Bitcoin we think of money, or PayPal. What we rarely think about is how Bitcoin can be used as a way for charities to obtain donations. Over the last several years there has been an increase in charities around the world which accept crypto currency donations...

As with virtually every war and destabilization since the British first discovered abundant oil in the Persian Gulf over a century ago, the Yemen war is about oil, more precisely about control of oil, lots of oil.

Yemen is a strategically key geopolitical stretch of land at the critical connecting point of the Red Sea which links to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean. It’s the site of one of the world’s most strategic shipping choke points, the Bab el Mandab, a narrow passage a mere 18 miles distance from Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, making it one of the US Department of Energy’s Oil Transit Chokepoints. According to the US Department of Energy an estimated 4.7 million barrels of oil passes through Bab el Mandab in both directions daily, including oil bound for China.

Webmaster's Commentary:

When Karl Marx observed that all wars are essentially economic in nature, he was entirely correct.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) took aim at President Trump on Wednesday over his comments regarding the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist who disappeared after entering the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey.

Gabbard wrote on Twitter that "being Saudi Arabia's bitch" did not align with the president's campaign theme of "America First," a day after Trump indicated that Saudi Arabia would not face severe consequences over Khashoggi's death.

Her comments came after Trump, as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, indicated that the U.S. would not sanction Saudi Arabia or otherwise punish the country over Khashoggi's death. Their stance drew criticism from both sides of the aisle Tuesday as politicians in both parties accused the White House looking the other way when it came to the Saudi government's alleged crimes.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Here is the reality of what happened, courtesy of WRH: and to Ms. McCain, and to Representative Gabbard, I hope you read this:

Trump has deservedly elicited widespread criticism for his treatment of the Khashoggi killing in a statement that appeared designed to preempt a U.S. intelligence assessment. He repeats the claim Khashoggi was part of the Muslim Brotherhood without really taking a position one way or the other and seemingly shrugs at the question of whether the crown prince had advance knowledge of the columnist’s torture and dismemberment. (“[M]aybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”)

But the apologia for the Saudi and United Arab Emirates war in Yemen, backed by our own government, should not escape reproach. Trump opens with some whataboutism and saber-rattling against Iran before lavishing praise on Saudi Arabia.

Webmaster's Commentary:

As a Christian pacifist activist, who abhors war as a way to achieve some wanted geopolitical outcome, and never advocates violence, for as long as this wretched war continues, I am compelled to witness, as truthfully as I can, to what the United States and its military, have done here, and are continuing to do in Yemen.

And here is what the US-enabled, Saudi war crimes look like in Yemen: warning; very graphic photos:

It is painfully obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together, that the US government, with full knowledge and intent, has been assisting Saudi Arabia in committing war crimes in Yemen.

And if either Sec Def Mattis, or Mike Pompeo thought for one millisecond, that they could "control" the actions of Prince bin Salman, after Saudi-aligned forces broke the cease-fire, and started shelling Hodeida mercilessly, they have been proven absolutely, and catastrophically wrong.

It appears that President Trump, our Merchant of Death in Chief believes firmly that these children and their parents must die, and are nothing more than "collateral damage" in the name of keeping sales of Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, and the other military industrial complex corporations, humming along to Saudi Arabia.

I would imagine that today, Dennis A. Muilenburg, President of Boeing; Marillyn Hewson, President of Lockheed Martin; and Roy Azevedo, President of Raytheon, are all having a lovely,traditional Thanksgiving dinner, with all the trimmings with family and friends; unfortunately, the children of Yemen, appear to be only worthy of the above-documented death and destruction at the hands of the Butcher of Yemen, Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and his BFF and enabler, America's Merchant of Death in Chief, President Trump.

As many as 85,000 children have starved to death in Yemen, according to Save the Children with the charity warning that up to 14 million people are at risk of famine if a ruinous war does not end soon.

Since 2015, when the fighting first broke out the group has estimated that at least 84,700 children under the age of five may have died from malnutrition. That is the equivalent of every child in Birmingham, Britain’s second biggest city, the group added.

The devastating statistic came as fighting flared in the Red Sea city of Hodeidah, the frontline of the latest battle, where food prices had soared by at least 400 per cent, according to local residents.

Only two hospitals are now working in the port town, both of which are dangerously close to the front line.

The prospect for peace - or at least a lasting ceasefire - is advancing rapidly following a surprise weekend proposal by Yemen's Houghis to halt all attacks on Saudi coalition forces. On Sunday the head of Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, said "We are willing to freeze and stop military operations" — something which now appears to have taken effect, according to a breaking Reuters report.

In the biggest turning point in the war which has raged since 2015, Reuters confirms:

Houthi rebels in Yemen said on Monday they were halting drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and their Yemeni allies, responding to a demand from the United Nations.

IN A POLITICAL maneuver that was equal parts bizarre and grimly predictable, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill moved yet again on Wednesday to block a vote to wind down U.S. military support for the war in Yemen, this time by tucking a parliamentary procedure into a rule governing legislation that removes gray wolves from the endangered species list.

The prospect for peace - or at least a lasting ceasefire - is advancing rapidly following a surprise weekend proposal by Yemen's Houghis to halt all attacks on Saudi coalition forces. On Sunday the head of Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, said "We are willing to freeze and stop military operations" — something which now appears to have taken effect, according to a breaking Reuters report.

In the biggest turning point in the war which has raged since 2015, Reuters confirms:

Houthi rebels in Yemen said on Monday they were halting drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and their Yemeni allies, responding to a demand from the United Nations.

Peace in Yemen could not come at a more crucial time. Yemeni factions are preparing for peace talks in Sweden at the end of November while Saudi Arabia faces intense scrutiny and pressure from its Western allies, as well as possible action from the United Nations Security Council, for leaving nearly 22 million Yemenis requiring urgent humanitarian aid at the mercy of the famine and disease that the Saudi-led coalition has leveraged as weapons of war.

As of July, the coalition’s war against Yemen had killed or injured 37,896 civilians, according to Yemen’s Legal Center for Rights and Development, which tracks civilian casualties. Since then, casualties have skyrocketed by 168 percent as a result primarily of the coalition’s bombardment of the densely populated port city of Hodeida.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Fingers crossed here; perhaps Khashoggi did not die in vain, if the eyes of the world are now focused on Saudi Arabia's and the US's war crimes in Yemen.

Continuing weeks of near-daily civilian death tolls from the US air war in Eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported that Saturday’s US attacks killed 40 more people, overwhelmingly civilians. The victims were described as mostly women and children.

Saturday’s attacks were against the village of Abu al-Hassan, along the Iraq border. It is adjacent to the ISIS-held towns that the US has been mostly attacking in recent weeks, and which Kurdish ground troops are attempting to invade.

The Syrian Observatory said it was unclear if any of the men killed in the attacks were actually militants, but that 17 children and 12 women were confirmed among the slain. In general, these attacks have targeted residential areas, not militants.

Webmaster's Commentary:

President Trump, a word, please; the collective assassination of innocents is a war crime, sir.

But my vote for the most magnificent nut in an Administration that is overflowing with such talent would be the esteemed United States Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey. The accolade is in part due to the fact that Jeffrey started out relatively sane as a career diplomat with the State Department, holding ambassadorships in Iraq, Turkey, and Albania. He had to work hard to become as demented as he now is but was helped along the way by signing on as a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), which is a spin-off of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Webmaster's Commentary:

It appears to me, that my brother and sister Americans are back to a status quo ante, a status of feudal vassals, as we were before the American revolution.

And why do I say this?

Although this can be expressed as a grasp of the in-your-face obvious,the cold, hard reality that the government is only responsive to the already monied, to and certain foreign governments, Israel being among the worst offenders, in terms of having very effectively hijacked American foreign policy to their own ends.

What is great for Israel, is not at all necessarily good for We the People.

Yes, there are moments when a common good for both countries align; but in the world of the 21st century, those moments are consistently fewer and farther between, particularly when comes to the Zionist vision of "Eretz Israel", which means carving off hunks of adjacent countries to perfect and achieve that vision.

Notice the hunks of Iraq, Syria, Saudia Arabia, Jordan,Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq which will have to be conquered by Israel in order for this "vision" of Eretz Israel to be achieved?!?

It is no accident that Israel cheered for the US invasion and occupation of Iraq; it is no accident that they have cheered the illegal and unwanted US military actions against Syria, including funding and arming the jihadists against the government; it is no accident that they have started the "political rapprochement" process with Saudi Arabia, which they are hoping to use as a proxy force against Iran, working with the US military, as they have been doing in Yemen; and it is no accident that Israel fully expects the US to go to war against Iran for it.

But as always with Israel, these "wins" are only to be purchased primarily at the cost of American blood, and American money.

I look at the media buys the military has been doing lately, with a lot of saturation ads, to encourage our young men and women to join; but the US military is in one horrifically awful dilemma right now.

They don't have the troop strength; the weaponry; the manufacturing (outsourced in the 80s, to make way for the alleged "service economy")or the money to insure a successful outcome to a conventional war against Russia and/or China.

With the mid-terms over, before there is a war against Russia, China, and/or Iran, I would not bet against the re-institution of the draft, coupled with continuing demonization of Russia, China, and Iran.

Please remember the following reality, as stated on Google:

"Virtually all male U.S. citizens, regardless of where they live, and male immigrants, whether documented or undocumented, residing in the United States, who are 18 through 25, are required to register with Selective Service. The law says men must register with Selective Service within 30 days of their 18th birthday."

Jonathan Cook says by bolstering Hamas, Netanyahu hopes to ensure Palestine remains disunited, divided territorially and ideologically, and in no position to exert pressure on Israel via Europe or the UN to begin peace talks or concede Palestinian statehood.>>

Jonathan Cook says by bolstering Hamas, Netanyahu hopes to ensure Palestine remains disunited, divided territorially and ideologically, and in no position to exert pressure on Israel via Europe or the UN to begin peace talks or concede Palestinian statehood.>>

...What matters most for China is Afghanistan becoming part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). That’s exactly what Chinese envoy Yao Jing told the opening session of the 4th Trilateral Dialogue in Islamabad earlier this week between China, Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Kabul can act as a bridge to help expand connectivity between East, South and Central Asian regions,” Jing said. Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said: “The Greater South Asia has emerged as a geo-economic concept, driven by economy and energy, roads and railways and ports and pipelines, and Pakistan is the hub of this connectivity due to CPEC.” For Beijing, CPEC can only deliver its enormous potential if Pakistan and India relations are normalized. And that road goes right through Afghanistan. China has been aiming for an opening for years. Chinese intel operatives have met the Taliban everywhere from Xinjiang to Karachi and from Peshawar to Doha. The China card is immensely alluring.

Bombings by the Saudi-led coalition may have devastated Yemen, but the country faces another deadly threat in the sky – US drones. A third of those killed by them in 2018 were civilians, including children, according to a report.

"We live in fear. Drones don't leave the sky," said one farmer, describing the day that two of his relatives were killed in a US drone strike. His is one of several testimonies recorded in a new report by Associated Press documenting the rising civilian death toll caused by the US drone war against Al-Qaeda's Yemeni franchise.

Pro-Saudi Yemeni soldiers have attacked and killed at least three protesters in eastern Yemen, responding to public protests demanding an end to the Saudi occupation with live fire.

Locals reported that there were dozens of protesters present when the troops started firing. Three have been killed, and four others wounded, according to their reports.

The attacks appear to have been the governor’s doing, as he had announced on Tuesday that “anyone threatening stability would be dealt with firmly.” It has subsequently been reported that he ordered security forces to open fire on any protesters.

The leader of the Iranian-backed Houthi movement in Yemen said on Sunday that he is ready to institute a ceasefire, as long as the Saudi-backed government coalition is willing to do the same.

"We are willing to freeze and stop military operations on all fronts to reach a just and honorable peace if they really want peace for the Yemeni people," said Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen's Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee. According to CNN, al-Houthi said that his forces would stop launching missiles and drone attacks on "US-Saudi aggression countries and their allies in Yemen."

Here's a paradox of the last few decades: as American military power has been less and less effective in achieving Washington's goals, the rhetoric surrounding that power has grown more and more boastful. The cliché that our armed forces are the best and mightiest in the world - even if the U.S. military hasn't won any of its significant wars in the last 50 years - resonates in President Trump's promise to make America great again ... The commemoration not only tells us something about the Pentagon's custodians of our Vietnam War memories, it also reveals something much broader and deeper in American political and popular culture: a powerful need to think of ourselves as a righteous, just, and successful country that fights only righteous, just, and successful wars.

"Nostalgia, a hybrid of nostos, the Greek words for "return", and algos, which means "suffering”, is often based on myths and false memories and, as such, is rarely a helpful illuminator on the present or guide to the future.

"But occasionally one stumbles on hard evidence of days long forgotten in the Arab world, or blurred and distorted by dysfunctional, primitive traditions and/or the venomous ideas of malicious forces among us, which shine a light on the darkness in which we currently live.

"The photographs below are snippets of the Arab world as it was once upon a time.

Bombings by the Saudi-led coalition may have devastated Yemen, but the country faces another deadly threat in the sky – US drones. A third of those killed by them in 2018 were civilians, including children, according to a report.

"We live in fear. Drones don't leave the sky," said one farmer, describing the day that two of his relatives were killed in a US drone strike. His is one of several testimonies recorded in a new report by Associated Press documenting the rising civilian death toll caused by the US drone war against Al-Qaeda's Yemeni franchise.

By Maj. Danny Sjursen
The whole charade plays best as farce. Absurdity incarnate. The sight of former President George W. Bush receiving a medal from Democrat Joe Biden – once an ardent opponent of Bush’s war policy – in Philadelphia for “his work with veterans,” on Veterans Day no less, induced nothing short of a gag from this veteran of two Bush wars – Iraq and Afghanistan.

George W. Bush, after all, led the U.S. military – to which I’ve dedicated my adult life – into two ill-advised perpetual wars, one of which was objectively illegal and immoral. In that war, in Iraq, some 7,000 American troops – including three of mine – were killed fighting in an unwinnable quagmire. Furthermore, though it slipped the attention of an American citizenry best known for its provincial inwardness, at least 250,000 Iraqis – mostly civilians – were killed. In a just world this would be labeled what it is – a war crime – but in this era of American hegemony, the populace simply sighs with apathy.

Senator Rand Paul secured a vote to proceed to S.J. Res. 65, his resolution of disapproval to block the sale of offensive weapons and support to Bahrain, a member of the Saudi-led coalition waging a devastating war in Yemen that has killed thousands of innocent civilians and left millions of Yemenis on the edge of famine.

On Wednesday, in a vote heavily along party lines, the House passed the Manage our Wolves Act 201-187. The vote effectively blocked all debate on the war in Yemen, and precluded that conflict from coming up for a future vote.

This is the second straight year that an attempt to challenge America’s unauthorized involvement in the Yemen War under the War Powers Act has been derailed by House leadership through last minute rule changes. This time, it required tying the rule change to a vote about gray wolves.

This led to a bizarre situation where they were debating the constitutionality of the Yemen War on one side, and the desire to shoot gray wolves on the other side. This was meant to give cover to lawmakers, to say they were voting because of the wolves instead of the unpopular Saudi-led war.

Webmaster's Commentary:

How could you expect anything less from "alleged" representatives, when our President is rapidly earning his "merchant of death - in chief" title?!?

You have to wonder; how stupid, or plain crazy, was this move to tie it ton issue resolving the gray wolf problem?!? Perhaps they knew this conflation would be the KOD (Kiss of Death) in the issue of the US-Enabled Saudi War against Yemen?!?

And one has to wonder; just how much did Saudi Arabia "contribute" to the campaigns of those who chose to scotch the deal?!?

In this part of the 21st century's US political cycle, politicians are simply ""assets", to be sold to the highest corporate/state-sponsored bidder; they utterly no longer represent We the People; they represent "Those the Monied"

Forgive my cynicism here, but I am almost to the point of believing that if elections really changed anything in this country, they wouldn't be allowed to happen.

Saudi Arabia public prosecutor Sheikh Shaalan al-Shaalan said on Thursday that the kingdom will seek the death penalty for five suspects among the 11 charged in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, confirming suspicions that members of the murder squad purportedly sent to "interrogate" Khashoggi will now themselves face beheadings as the Saudi Royal Family closes ranks around the Crown Prince, per the FT.

As for Mohammed bin Salman who runs the day to day affairs of the world’s top oil exporter and is the de facto head of OPEC, the prosecutor said had "no knowledge" of the mission, effectively absolving him of any domestic suspicion, if not international.

In what is the most shocking geopolitical news of the day, NBC reports that the Trump administration is weighing extraditing the nemesis of Turkish President Recep Erdogan, cleric Fethulah Gulen who has been living for years in relative seclusion in rural Pennsylvania, from the U.S. in order to placate Turkey over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

According to the NBC report, Trump administration officials last month asked federal law enforcement agencies to examine legal ways of removing the exiled Turkish cleric in an attempt to persuade Erdogan to ease pressure on the Saudi government. The effort includes directives to the Justice Department and FBI that officials reopen Turkey's case for his extradition, as well as a request to the Homeland Security Department for information about his legal status, four sources told NBC.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I am having a Jean-Luc Picard double face palm, upon reading this!!

The White House HAS to know that this guy will get tortured to say ANYTHING Erdogan wants him to stay, and "publicly confess", and that he is able to absolutely bend DC to his will on this issue.

Senator Rand Paul secured a vote to proceed to S.J. Res. 65, his resolution of disapproval to block the sale of offensive weapons and support to Bahrain, a member of the Saudi-led coalition waging a devastating war in Yemen that has killed thousands of innocent civilians and left millions of Yemenis on the edge of famine.

On Wednesday, a measure is being advanced at the behest of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) aiming to derail House Continuing Resolution 138, a War Powers Act challenge which would force an end to the US military involvement in the Saudi-led War in Yemen.

Under the War Powers Act, any individual lawmaker is intended to be able to raise the matter of an unauthorized war for debate and a vote on the floor. Efforts to do so have failed, however, as the House leadership has used the Rules Committee to sidestep the issue.

This move to derail the debate is part of the first day of lame-duck House business, and Rep. Ryan and the other leaders seem to be hoping to turn the legal challenge of the war into a partisan issue. Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) accused the Republican leadership of shirking Congressional responsibility.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Folks, this is all about two things; the billions the weaponry companies are making from Saudi Arabia,and about continuing and abetting their war crimes in Yemen, rather than having a national discussion of the moral costs to this country these actions have had. (warning: highly graphic images):

The Saudis are assassinating women, children, or maiming them for life with their bombing raids:

I for one want to see this carnage stopped, immediately, and negotiations among all sides leading to a cease fire, and peace talks among all parties to resolve this horrific war.

And President Trump, I would like to strongly caution you that the optics here internationally...couldn't possibly be worse, for this country, and its participation on the genocide of Yemen, courtesy of one of your BFFs in the region, The Butcher of Yemen, AKA Crown Prince bin Salman.

It seems there’s no end in sight to the US economic pressure being levied against Iran. In addition to the second wave of US sanctions which took effect on November 5th, the US government has tried several different ways to undermine or limit Iranian oil sales around the world. The most recent effort had been the US government’s actions to pressure SWIFT to stop processing financial transactions for Iran. That effort was successful and has left Iran with only a few options to continue selling its oil abroad...

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi said the US attempt to rally support for the abrogation of the internationally-accepted 2015 nuclear deal and reinstatement of its illegal sanctions on Tehran would entail dire consequences for the Middle-East.

Heavy fighting between invading Saudi-backed forces and the Shi’ite Houthi movement continues to escalate, with medics saying at least 150 people killed on Monday in just a 24 hour span. This is an increase of weeks of deadly fighting in and around the vital port city of Hodeidah.

Hodeidah is the main aid port into Yemen, and the last port under Houthi control. This means it is effectively the source of food for millions of Yemenis in the Houthi-controlled north, and aid groups warn the fall of the port could lead to famine.

The death toll is rising as the fighting moves deeper into the city, and its residential areas. The fall of the city’s main hospital over the weekend led to medical staff fleeing the area, and thousands of civilians remain trapped in the neighborhoods nearby.

Given the anger in Washington over the Jamal Khashoggi murder case, there is a real possibility that the Democrat-controlled House will be able to garner the votes to achieve what scores of lawmakers unsuccessfully sought to accomplish in March. The stakes are high regarding weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Any effort to cancel, delay, or freeze arms deals could undermine the White House’s “special relationships” with Crown Princes Mohammed bin Salman and Mohammed bin Zayed, the de facto rulers in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi who are at the helm of Saudi and Emirati foreign policy. At risk are pending Saudi and UAE purchases of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile defense system, the F-35 fifth generation fighter jets, and precision guided munitions.

Saudi-backed invasion forces are pushing deeper into the vital Yemeni aid port of Hodeidah, with heavy fighting on Saturday killing at least 80 across the city. Hodeidah’s main hospital has fallen and now the fighting has reached the residential area surrounding it.

Medics reported that among the 80 killed, 61 were Houthi fighters and the other 19 were pro-Saudi soldiers. There were also reports of civilian casualties from several airstrikes in the area, though exact numbers are unclear.

This is the latest of several major military offensives against the port. The most recent push was said to include thousands of additional fighters, including Yemeni factions and the Sudanese military.

Webmaster's Commentary:

The goal of the Saudi military, enabled by the US military, is to starve the residents of Hodeidah into submission.

Just in case the Saudi Government, or US government or military never got the memo, THIS IS A WAR CRIME!!

Even as the humanitarian crisis precipitated by Saudi Arabia’s more-than-three-year war in Yemen has deepened, the Pentagon earlier this year launched a new classified operation to support the kingdom’s military operations there, according to a Defense Department document that appears to have been posted online inadvertently.

The existence of the new classified operation, code-named Yukon Journey, was partially revealed in a Defense Department inspector general report posted online earlier this month, which noted that “the Secretary of Defense designated three new named contingency operations: Operation Yukon Journey, and operations in Northwest Africa and East Africa.”

The three operations, which focus on al-Qaida and ISIS, are classified, the report notes, and the Pentagon has not publicly disclosed their location beyond saying they are in the Middle East and Africa.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Translation: the Pentagon will continue assassinating all Yemenis still breathing possible, until Yemen is securely occupied by the Saudi military, no matter how many innocents are murdered in the process.

In providing this "cover" for the Butcher of Yemen, (His Royal Highness, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman), the US government has telegraphed its enthusiasm for continuing to aid and abet Saudi war crimes in Yemen.

My brother and sister Americans are now citizens of a country which commits war crimes.

When I was a kid, thoughts like this never entered my head; my country was always the moral, reasonable, democratic holder of the higher ground; it is disgusting to know that this was rarely the case with this country, particularly in the 21st century.

I have to weep for what I see as the final trajectory for US foreign policy.

U.S. President Donald Trump awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in the U.S., to seven individuals Saturday, both living and dead — one of whom has been the biggest donor to the Republican Party.

Miriam Adelson was awarded the Medal of Freedom. She is married to Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire Las Vegas casino magnate and another GOP megadonor.

The Adelsons recently contributed $113 million to GOP causes during the 2018 election cycle. Among those donations, the couple gave $25 million in July to the Senate Leadership Fund, $2 million in September to ESA Fund, $3 million in July and September to the Republican Governors Association and roughly $40 million between May and September to the Congressional Leadership Fund, according to Politico.

Webmaster's Commentary:

This award, and the Adelsons' donations, bring some things about this administration, perfectly into focus.

The Adelson money has "bought" US foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East, where everything Israel wants, it gets granted; the Palestinians continue to get slaughtered; and Iran is in the crosshairs of the US for a shooting war and regime change.

A day after President Tayyip Erdogan dropped the latest bombshell related to the Saudi murder of Jamal Khashoggi, saying Turkey had handed over an audio recording of the journalist's brutal slaying inside the Istanbul consulate to the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Germany, France and Britain, the contents of Khashoggi's last words have emerged.

Editor for the the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah, Nazif Karaman, shared some details from the audio tape with Al Jazeera. Karaman said Khashoggi's last words were:

“I’m suffocating… Take this bag off my head, I’m claustrophobic” – according what he confirmed is the authentic audio recording from inside the Istanbul consulate.

Meanwhile at the conclusion of the centennial anniversary of WWI ceremony in Paris President Erdogan's office confirmed he and President Trump discussed the Jamal Khashoggi killing on the sidelines of the weekend events.

Webmaster's Commentary:

If this happens, I think it would be a very good thing, particularly for those Americans who still naively believe that this country's government and military "only partner with governments who act in honor of humanity, responsibility, would never commit war crimes, and would never torture and kill."

IF this happens, it is about to usher in a floodgate of information about how the US is assisting Saudi Arabia in their war crimes in Yemen.

And thinking Americans will have to ask; "why am I a citizen of a country which aids and abets Saudi war crimes in Yemen"?!?

I have to wonder just what President Trump promised Erdogan, to prevent this from possibly happening; I also hope Erdogan didn't "take the bait" about releasing this audio.

We also have a companion piece, also from blacklistednews.com, on this issue:

A month after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, an international consensus is emerging about how to respond: deplore the crime, demand justice, but don’t cut ties with the kingdom. In particular, don’t cut off Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man widely believed to have ordered the killing of the dissident journalist.

The ambitious, impetuous crown prince, known as MbS, is probably damaged goods as a person. He’s unlikely to receive another lavish welcome in Silicon Valley any time soon. But he has become the diplomatic equivalent of some big banks: too big to fail.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Looking at the lack of consequences after the assassination happened, (not to mention the thousands of dead and dying, courtesy of Saudi Arabia's invasion of Yemen), I think Lippman is entirely correct in his assessment.

The US demand for an immediate ceasefire in Yemen never happened, with US-backed factions continuing to attack the port city of Hodeidah. US promises of Yemen peace talks in November are also now being postponed.

Officials are presenting the talks, despite initially being presented as happening some time this month, as being set for early December. Now, they say if the talks happen at all, it will be in late December.

Some diplomats are suggesting the postponement is because of concerns that the Houthis won’t show up. The Houthis did not attend the previous talks, because they could not get assurances from the Saudis that their delegation would be allowed to safely travel, and the US seems no more willing to offer such assurances.

At least 15 civilians were killed on Thursday after Saudi-led coalition aircraft and artillery carried out strikes against a residential area in Yemen’s strategic western province of Hodeida and the border areas of Sadaa.

A local source told MintPress News that Saudi jets conducted airstrikes against the al-Jabaliyah area in the al-Tuheita district in southern Hodeida on Thursday afternoon, killing 45-year-old Hassan al Ameri and his four daughters Sumiah, Hunood, Laila and Hend, who ranged in age from eight months to nine years old. Al Ameri’s twelve-year-old son, Ali, was also killed in the attack.

On Friday, three women were killed when Saudi border guards targeted their village in the Razeh district with artillery fire. The village has been under intensive artillery and missile attack since the Saudi-led coalition, supported by the United States, renewed its large-scale offensive weeks ago.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I am frankly waiting for the Butcher of Yemen (AKA, Saudi Crown Prince Bin Salman) to order a carpet bombing of all civilians left at Hodeida, but leaving the port infrastructure intact.

he US, UK, and French governments are behind millions of people starving in Yemen because they are “supporting this war,” an Oxfam representative told RT, urging London to stop beefing up Saudi Arabia’s military.

British, French, American governments are all behind this, they are all supporting this war.

Stanforth blamed the British government in particular, saying that London should stop its arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which is accused of targeting food supplies and even no-strike locations in Yemen.

“We’ve seen attacks on water infrastructure, on hospitals, warehouses of food. This pattern is continuing. Certainly, it’s the airstrikes that are killing most civilians,” he said.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Even with all the positive publicity about Oxfam, I sincerely hope and pray that Richard Stanforth is wearing his Kevlar undies; the people signing those arms deals, including the US's Merchant of Death in Chief, aka Donald Trump, doesn't like the world really seeing what happens to the arms they are selling Saudi Arabia.

- U.S. arms sales to foreign governments rose 13 percent to $192.3 billion in the year ending Sept. 30, the State Department said on Thursday, a result of looser restrictions on sales coupled with high-level efforts to close deals.

President Donald Trump wants to make the United States, already dominant in the global weapons trade, an even bigger arms merchant to the world, U.S. officials have said, despite concerns among human rights and arms control advocates.

The increase came in part because the Trump administration rolled out a new “Buy American” plan in April that relaxed restrictions on sales while encouraging U.S. officials to take a bigger role in increasing business overseas for the U.S. weapons industry

Webmaster's Commentary:

I never used to believe that the US would tolerate a President masquerading as its Merchant of Death in Chief; now, it appears we have one.

Just weeks after promising to back a peace effort in Yemen, the Trump Administration is reportedly considering labeling the Shi’ite Houthi movement in northern Yemen, one of the principal forces, a terrorist organization.

The move appears unrelated to US policy in Yemen itself. Rather, it reflects the Trump Administration’s desire to go after perceived Iranian allies. Saudi Arabia, who is attacking the Houthis, has accused them of being in league with Iran.

In reality, the Houthis have always had limited connections to Iran. But making them a US-labeled terrorist group would not only greatly undermine the Houthis, it would complicate the peace talks to the point of making them nearly impossible.

Perhaps even worse, a terrorist label would make it even harder to deliver humanitarian aid into northern Yemen.

Webmaster's Commentary:

It is glaringly apparent that neither President Trump, nor one of his BFFs in the Middle East, the Butcher of Yemen, aka Crown Prince Bin Salman, do not want peace, but to continue the horrific war, in which the US is enabling Saudi war crimes.

Such a declaration will also accelerate making aid more impossible to get to starving Yemeni people, and contribute to more children gunned down in Saudi raids, starving to death, and vulnerable to cholera.

This is precisely where the US and the Saudi leadership wants the Yemeni people to be.

I came across this story which reports on Iran’s ongoing problems obtaining civilian aircraft for their airline industry. This specific story is about a recent development where Iran Air is publicly appealing to aircraft manufacturers to try and find ones who won’t be pressured by the U.S. Treasury. The problem of acquiring new civilian aircraft has been an ongoing issue which has been reported on many times, especially over the last few years as Iran has tried to purchase new aircraft...

Stuart Littlewood calls for robust measures to counter bogus accusations of anti-Semitism that stifle free speech and for a centralised legal unit to be created to reprimand Zio-extremists who make false accusations of anti-Semitism against the likes of Baroness Tonge. >>

US-backed forces loyal to the Saudi and UAE governments continue to attack the main Yemeni aid port of Hodeidah Wednesday. While the city itself remains unbreached, ground troops have seized the main road leading into the city, even more tightly restricting flow to and from it.

The Saudi-led naval blockade has put Yemen, which relies on food imports for over 90% of its food, on the brink of a major famine. Hodeidah is the main import site for food, and the last port under the control of the Houthi movement. If the port falls, there will be no way to get food to almost the entire north of the country.

The Houthis are using snipers to keep ground troops from entering the main port area after weeks of offensives. In recent days, they’ve also started tire fires to try to obscure visibility of the port, in an attempt to make it harder for Saudi warships to target the city.

Webmaster's Commentary:

It appears to be only a matter of time before Saudi and US troops have control of Hodeida.

This should fall well within the end of the month that Mattis has set for peace talks to start, as thousands more Yemeni continue to die from malnutrition.

Three years into the Yemen war, Saudi Arabia, which spearheaded the 2015 military intervention, says it “stands” with Yemenis. “Your children – our children,” reads a really questionable poster released in a tweet by the ministry.

To support their claim, the post, bearing the 'We Stand with Yemen' hashtag, features smiling faces of children along with emblems of Saudi government agencies, such as Communication and Media Center and the Foreign Ministry itself.

British-backed Saudi bombing destroyed Oxfam facilities in Yemen, said the United Kingdom charity. The information about the destruction of facilities of the humanitarian organization emerged during last week’s parliamentary debates in the House of Commons where U.K. ministries were evaluating the impact of the country’s arms sale to Riyadh.

A vital cholera treatment center in Abs, in the Hajjah province, was hit in June in airstrikes which are supported by British intelligence, according to British news outlet Independent.

The location of the treatment facility was notified 12 times. In April, coalition air raids damaged an Oxfam supported water supply system that provided water for 6,000 people.

“On the one hand, British aid is a vital lifeline, on the other, British bombs are helping to fuel an ongoing war that is leading to countless lives being lost each week to fighting, disease, and hunger,” said Oxfam’s head of advocacy, Toni Pearce.

Nahum Barnea, a leading Israeli commentator, writing in Yedioth Ahronoth in May (in Hebrew), set out, unambiguously, the ‘deal’ behind Trump’s Middle East policy:

In the wake of the US exit from JCPOA [which occurred on 8 May], Trump, Barnea wrote, will threaten a rain of ‘fire and fury’ onto Tehran … whilst Putin is expected to restrain Iran from attacking Israel using Syrian territory, thus leaving Netanyahu free to set new ‘rules of the game’ by which the Israel may attack and destroy Iranian forces anywhere in Syria (and not just in the border area, as earlier agreed) when it wishes, without fear of retaliation.

This represented one level to the Netanyahu strategy: Iranian restraint, plus Russian acquiescence to coordinated Israeli air operations over Syria.

Lawrence Davidson compares the cultures in the US and Israel that gave rise to the Pittsburgh and Hebron mass murderers, one an anti-Semite American and the other an Arab-hating Israeli Jew – paranoid, gun-loving, minority-demonising cultures. >>

Qatar will provide temporary support to 50,000 impoverished Gaza families as mediators attempt to broker a truce between Hamas and Israel, AFP reported. The Gulf state has announced it will provide $100 each to 50,000 poor families in the “next few days,” according to a statement from Qatar’s Gaza Reconstruction Committee. The beneficiaries are being selected in coordination with the Hamas-led authorities.

Lebanese authorities are ready to assist in the return of about 200,000 Syrian refugees to their native country before the end of the year, the head of the Russian National Defense Management Center Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev said on Wednesday.

Mohamed El-Doufani says the proliferation of the Muslim veil, the niqab, and its equally primitive variants is an indicator of the spread of a pernicious ideology propagated by the Muslim Brotherhood and other ultra-reactionary Salafists and should be of concern to everyone of us. >>

Mohamed El-Doufani says the proliferation of the Muslim veil, the niqab, and its equally primitive variants is an indicator of the spread of a pernicious ideology propagated by the Muslim Brotherhood and other ultra-reactionary Salafists and should be of concern to everyone of us. >>

The surgical dismembering of Jamal Khashoggi has sent the military establishments of several countries into a tizz. Arms manufacturers are wondering whether this is an inconvenient blip, a ruffling moral reminder about what they are dealing with. Autocratic regimes indifferent to the lives of journalists are wondering whether the fuss taken about all this is merely the fuss endured, till the next bloody suppression. But importantly, those states notionally constituting the West may have to reconsider the duping strategy that the House of Saud has executed with the deft efficiency of the dedicated axeman.

Webmaster's Commentary:

My sense of this is, that the Butcher of Yemen, AKA Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will be allowed to stand, and never charged for this crime; this is because the US and the UK do not want to give up all that revenue for their weapons which they have sold to Saudi Arabia for his use in the creating the expanding genocide in Yemen.

Additionally, Israel is siding with Saudi Arabia against Iran, so one can see how this is sorting out, in terms of who will be aligned with whom in the next coming regional war.

Some poor underschmuck will be blamed, and punished, and just like magic, the Butcher of Yemen will have been wiped clean of his deeds, with an extra dose of corporate sales-bleach added to the last spin cycle.

But I would gently suggest that when people in power start to mingle with sociopaths in power with malicious intent, that malicious intent rubs off, and becomes a justification for that person to start materializing, and executing, some malicious intent of their own, which will most probably not be to the benefit of the country over which they are leaders.

It very deeply concerns me that President Trump's BFFs in the Middle East, are the Butcher of Yemen,Crown prince bin Salman, and the Butcher of Gaza, Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The surgical dismembering of Jamal Khashoggi has sent the military establishments of several countries into a tizz. Arms manufacturers are wondering whether this is an inconvenient blip, a ruffling moral reminder about what they are dealing with. Autocratic regimes indifferent to the lives of journalists are wondering whether the fuss taken about all this is merely the fuss endured, till the next bloody suppression. But importantly, those states notionally constituting the West may have to reconsider the duping strategy that the House of Saud has executed with the deft efficiency of the dedicated axeman.

Webmaster's Commentary:

My sense of this is, that the Butcher of Yemen, AKA Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will be allowed to stand, and never charged for this crime; this is because the US and the UK do not want to give up all that revenue for their weapons which they have sold to Saudi Arabia for his use in the creating the expanding genocide in Yemen.

Additionally, Israel is siding with Saudi Arabia against Iran, so one can see how this is sorting out, in terms of who will be aligned with whom in the next coming regional war.

Some poor underschmuck will be blamed, and punished, and just like magic, the Butcher of Yemen will have been wiped clean of his deeds, with an extra dose of corporate sales-bleach added to the last spin cycle.

But I would gently suggest that when people in power start to mingle with sociopaths in power with malicious intent, that malicious intent rubs off, and becomes a justification for that person to start materializing, and executing, some malicious intent of their own, which will most probably not be to the benefit of the country over which they are leaders.

It very deeply concerns me that President Trump's BFFs in the Middle East, are the Butcher of Yemen,Crown prince bin Salman, and the Butcher of Gaza, Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Nguyen Van Tu grasps my hands in thanks as we end the interview. His story is part of a hidden, if not forbidden, history that few in the U.S. know. It’s a story that was written in blood in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during the 1960s and 1970s and now is being rewritten in Afghanistan and Iraq. It’s a story to which new episodes are added each day that U.S. forces roll armored vehicles down other people’s streets, kick down other people’s doors, carry out attacks in other people’s neighborhoods and occupy other people’s countries.

It took nearly 40 years for word of Nguyen Van Tu’s hardships at the hands of the United States to filter back to America. Perhaps a few more Americans will feel remorse as a result. But who will come forward to take responsibility for all this suffering? And who will give Pham Van Chap a new leg?

Webmaster's Commentary:

Being one of the world's most war-centric despots on the planet means, never having to say you're sorry; until the loss or losses are so horrific, that the wars ultimately grind to a stop, because the people of the US will not allow it, as they did during the peaceful, massive demonstrations against the war in Vietnam.

So far, that hasn't happened for the US; but coming wars I see, potentially against Russia; China; and Iran, may well be the turning point for the US, creating either total devastation, or a complete economic collapse for this country. Either way, it may not not end well.

Some of us when we think of Bitcoin we think of money, or PayPal. What we rarely think about is how Bitcoin can be used as a way for charities to obtain donations. Over the last several years there has been an increase in charities around the world which accept crypto currency donations.

On top of this we’ve also seen political candidates in the United States accepting digital currency donations for their campaigns. One surprising thing I discovered a few days is that there is a charity based in Iran which is receiving Bitcoin donations. I was blindsided to see this because I do follow crypto currency news out of Iran, and I even have a Google News alert for “Iran Bitcoin”...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that US-Kurdish joint patrols near the Turkish-Syrian border are unacceptable. Erdogan, set to meet US President Donald Trump in Paris this weekend, told reporters he would discuss the patrols carried out by the US and allied Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). He said they would cause “serious negative developments” along the border. The patrols began in northern Syria last week with the aim of averting clashes between Turkey and Washington’s Kurdish allies, but Turkey pressed on with a new threatened offensive nearby to crush the Kurds, Reuters said.

Jonathan Cook argues that Israel’s leaders are not simply placating a new wave of white-nationalist and neo-fascist leaders, from Brazil and the US to Central and Eastern Europe, but have a deep-rooted ideological sympathy with them.>>

At the end of the same week that the Trump administration announced a 30-day deadline to reach a ceasefire in Yemen, it was revealed the United Kingdom is planning to introduce a United Nations Security Council resolution that seeks to end of the war.

According to a Friday ABC News report, citing diplomatic sources, the British could introduce the resolution as early as this coming week. ABC reports that "one source said it would call for a humanitarian ceasefire and the safe passage of food and other aid, for support for the cratering Yemeni economy, and on both sides to fully engage with the U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths."

Last week's ceasefire proposal by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been widely seen as the result of heightened media pressure and international outrage over the October 2nd killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi likely upon the direct orders of Saudi crown prince MbS.

Stuart Littlewood highlights UK Baroness Tonge’s longstanding battles with the Israel lobbies in the Liberal Democratic Party and the UK at large, and comments on the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s stab in her back despite her long history of campaigning for Palestinian rights. >>

The end of business on Friday marked the end of the six month period between the US withdrawing from the P5+1 nuclear deal and the withdrawal being finalized. As of Monday, the US will be reimposing all sanctions against Iran that they’d previously been required by treaty to ease.

The US intention is to put all international sanctions back exactly as they were before the nuclear deal was signed. Since Iran is still party to the deal, as is most of the rest of the world, many nations do not intend to comply with US demands.

Still, Iran’s economy has been struggling already, with the anticipation of sanctions gravely damaging the currency. This has many ordinary Iranians fearing that their economic struggles are about to get worse, while Iran’s government, as throughout the sanctions, is in a better position to weather the storm.

Webmaster's Commentary:

As I have observed many times in my posts at WRH, just because something is the most ham-fistedly, pig-headedly stupid thing the US government could do, is absolutely no guarantee that the US government won't do it.

Removal of the US from the P5+1 agreement is one of those stupid things, of course demanded by Sheldon Adelson, Trump's major US contributor, and his boss, Israel's Bibi Netanyahu; so Team Trump believes that they have delivered on that, along with designating Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, rather than Tel Aviv.

Everyone inspecting from the IAEA has said, right up to recent times, that Iran is still absolutely in compliance. And when someone as bright as one would have to be to earn a "seat at the table" in the IAEA, tells me Iran is complying, I would very much believe that person's credibility.

But what this completely idiotic move is going to accomplish, is to push Iran, Russia, and China even closer together economically than they already are, so I have to wonder; is a pathological incapability to see any scenario through to is logical conclusion now a mandate for US government work?!? Because folks, that is what it is looking like from here!!

So what does Team Trump think will be the ultimate outcome of this insanity?!? Will they go to war with all parts of the world ignoring the US's sanctions?!? I sincerely don't think so, but with this administration, one never can really be certain.

A starving Yemeni girl, whose searing portrait from a hospital bed brought the world’s attention to the ongoing and growing humanitarian disaster in the country, has died. Meanwhile, the Saudi-led blockade of supplies continues.

The photo of an emaciated Amal Hussein was published as part of a story in the New York Times last week, highlighting the growing human tragedies caused by the ongoing fighting and the devastating impact the Saudi Arabia-led bombing campaign has had on civilians.

On Thursday, her family told the paper that Amal had died in a refugee camp, several miles from the hospital that had tried to treat her. She was seven years old.

The Saudi Air Force unleashed a massive attack across the Sana’a Governorate over the last 24 hours, Yemeni activists reported from the Yemeni capital.

According to the reports from Sana’a, the Saudi Air Force heavily bombarded the capital city and its surroundings, hitting a number of sites that allegedly have a Houthi (var. Ansarallah Movement) presence.

In addition to striking civilian neighborhoods, the Saudi Air Force reportedly attacked the area around the Sana’a Airport.